samuel carson



N, PETERS. PHOYOLITHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON. D

N. PETERS. PHOTmLITHOGRAPHER. wASHmGYoN, D. C,

N UNiTED sri-irasA PATENT. oFFIoE.

SAMUEL CARSON, 0F WOODSIDE, ENGLAD..

APPARATUS EMPLOYED ron rLoA'rrNe AND nArsrNor vEssE-Ls AND OTHERBoDrEsiIn4 i THE WATER, a y Y Specification of Letters Patent No. 837,Vdated July 12, 1838.l

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL4 CARSON, of Woodside, in the county ofChester, England, merchant, a subject of the Queenof Great Britain, haveinvented or discovered new and useful Improvements in Apparatus Employedfor Floating and Raising Vessels and other Bodies in the Water; and I,the said SAMUEL CARSON, do hereby declare the nature of my invention andthe manner in which the same is to be performed and fully described andascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference beinghad to the drawing hereunto annexed and to the figures and lettersmarked thereonthat is to say- My invention relates to improvements inthe modes of using air tight flexible bags or vessels and toimprovementsin the apparatus in connection therewith in order to giving thenecessary supply of air thereto and for sustaining and strengtheningsuch flexible bags or vessels whereby their use is much simplified. andthey may according toV my invention be applied with facility in floatingladen and other ships and vessels over bars or shallow places Voverwhich the ship or vessel with her ordinary draft of water would not passbut by means of a judicious arrangement of air bags in combination withmy improvedapparatus the same 4l will with facilit y be raised to such adegree l of a woven fabric' I employ a coveringmade' up of a series ofstaves of lwood or metal that the depth o' draft will be materiallydecreased and the ship or vessel floated over thebar or other shallowwater and in like manner a ship or vessel may when at sea and in. asinking state be kept afloat and saved and-further the apparatus asimproved by me' becomes more useful certain and vsafe in raising sunkerships and vessels andV other bodies than any heretofore practised; andfurther the yapparatus may also be used in calm weather'even at sea tolay the vessel or ship on one side to examine her bottom in case of herhaving received damage or otherwise. l

The lirst object of my invention is to improve the construction and modeof applying air tight flexible bags or vessels and this I accomp ish bytwo modes. According to the various attempts that have been made toemploy air tight flexible" bags or vessels for such purposes the samehave been simply attached to ropes or chains and inisome instances thebags or vessels have had flat" ropes or fabrics attached at intervalsaround or over them where the attachment mofthe ropes or chalns are tobe made butin all such modes of using the bags there has been vmore orless of the surface unsupported, or" strengthened and as these bags areusually.

constructedof light and thin fabrics joined by a layer or layers ofindia rubber they are not adapted under such circumstances tobe Aemployed with 'advar'itage` a In making air tightflexible bags orvessels to be employed for the purposes of my in-V vention I take bypreference water and air tight fabrics produced by stitching twothicknesses of fabric together as has heretofore been practised and towhich I lay no claim nor do I conline myself thereto, as my inventiondoes not relate to the mode of making such vessels but to the mode `oftreatingand applying them to produce the' beneficial effect of myinvention which first relates to the employment of an external`covering, of strong woven fabric' to which the attachments of the`ropes chains and tackle are to be made, the air bags or vessels beingwithin such strong woven fabric and `are `thereby supported andpreserved from injury and it is desirableto make such outer A,

lcoveringsomewhat less thanY the internal bag ,in order to prevent theinner bags being strained beyond their powers. Or in `place whichhowever are not made intoa vessel but the parts are capable ofmovementiand hence of being readily applied and removed and the samemaybe folded up when out of weight of the ship or vesselpto beraisfedV willdepend the number and size of the apparatus used but the same willreadily` be l adapted for each particular case but in ,Oir-V der to givethe best information in power i I lwill suppose that it is intended"that each t bag or vessel should be capableof floating thirty tons insuch case. I prefer the flexi-V use. lIt will be evident that on thesize and the warp and weft being made of hemp ,y jor l flax of about aquarter of an inch diameter but this may be varied both in material anddimensions care being observed in making the external covering so strongthat it will Y more than support the weight it will be required tosustain this strong woven fabric is to beformed to a similar figure asthat of the bag (but as before stated somewhat less) which is to incloseand in such manner that by lacing the air bag may be inclosed withfacility and in order to keep these bags dise tended I'apply a bar ofthe length ofthe bag and by preference to the lower part thereof carebeing observed so to lace the bar to the outer' cover as to `bring allthe cords or strands of the web to bear their equal proportions or asnearly so as possible and to these bars I affix one or more strong at`ropes for going under the keel of the ship or vessel and long enough tobe made fast Veither to the side of the ship or on the deck Vship whichis being raised.

or otherwise and in such manner that a number of flexible bags may bethus attached and be made simultaneously to act in supporting andfloating a vessel. This will become more clear on inspecting thedrawing7 Figure l, where an arrangement of apparatus such as abovementioned and explained is applied to a ship in a proper manner forreducing the depth of her water line in order to float her over a bar orother shallow' water, and I would here remark that I prefer that eachvessel or ship should at all times carry a suitably arranged apparatusaccording to my invention by whichl means she would be provided at alltimes when she had to pass over bars or shallow waters, and further incase of danger of sinking she may have it applied in a very short timeas will readily be evident and I prefer that each'air supply pipe of thevarious bags should be connected toone common air vessel situated on thedeck of the ship or vessel whereby the whole of the bags would besimultaneously filled and the ship or vessel progressively raised andthe depth of her water line reduced and in case the ship or vessel isbeing towed by a steam vessel I rec-V ommend the air pump or pumps forsupplying the air vessel should be worked by the engines on board and aflexible air pipe connection thereto and to the air vessel (see Fig.V lof the drawing) or the same may be worked by the hands on board thevessel or It may be now desirable shortly to explain the mode ofapplying the apparatus, Fig. l,

in order to lessen the draft of water that the to this rope one of theflat ropes a is to be made fast and drawn under the keel till the airbag or vessel is sufficiently below the water then another andanother'bag orV vesselis successively to be applied observing to drawthe rope b of the eye of the next air bag as'it is about to V,be loweredby this means all the bags or vessels will be connected together andwhen. all are down andthe ropes made fast the air pump or vpumps are tobe applied and the inflation will simultaneously go on in'all the airbags or vessels and the ship or vesselv will progressively rise towardthewaters surface till she draws only so muchl water as will allow ofher passing over the bar or other shallow water and in case of itbeing'desired to lay the vessel over on one side 4to examine her bottomthe inflation should only go on7 on one side as willreadily beunderstood.V

Fig. 2 shows the arrangement of a series of staves or narrow boards orof iron or other metal combined together which may be used in place ofthe woven fabrics before explained. V

'Another part of my invention relates to the mode of constructing airpumps used for inflation air tight bags Vof whatever construction forthe purpose of floatingV ships vessels and other bodies in water and theimprovement consists in the mode of applying packing whereby the packingbecomes more and more effectual as the pressure increases: In Fig. 3 asection of a pump is shown; a is the pump cylinder and Z9 the pistonwhich is completely covered with leather there being an opening wherethe piston rod passes through and that is covered by a plate 0 in orderto make an air tight joint the lower 'part of the leather cover beingsewed to the upper-cup or cover of leather. '05 is a hole made vthroughthe lower plate of the piston and'through the lower 'ring of leatherasis shown in the drawing, hence it is evident that on the downstroke ofthe pistonV the air will pass up through the hole d and press out theleather covering whichy will insure a close packing and the more so asthel pressure of the airis greater. And further in order to provideagainst more air being forced into the bags than is required tocompletely fill Vthem I apply a valve e which Vmay be loadedV fariapparatus for lowering down flexible air tight bags or vessels in orderto raise sunken ships or vessels or bodies without the necessity ofsending down divers to make such flexible air tight vessels orbags fastto the same. This apparatus consists of a pair of forceps which are soarranged that they may be'made to takeV hold at any lpart of a cable andraised or lowered at pleasure from above. This apparatus isshown atFigs. 5 6 and 7 in various views of the parts composing the same. A Aare the two chaps moving on a pin or joint as an axis at B each of thesehave an opening or bow C and the axis B is embraced thereby and in theaxis there is an opening sufficiently large to allow of the passage ofthe chain or rope on which the `forceps are to move and to hold. D D aretwo links or connecting rods by which and by pin joints at E E E thechaps A are connected together and F is a ring or shackle by which theiiexible bags or the` external covering thereofV are made fast to theforceps. G is a guard affixed to one of the chaps and within which theother chap moves. I-I is a weight which is applied to one of the chaps Ain order to sink the air tight bags and which may be removed when `theapparatus is suiiiciently lowered as is clearly shown by the'drawing theWeight only hanging by a hook. I is a weight hun to one of the chaps Ain order to keep 1t open till the apparatus is suiiiciently `lowered andit will readily be understood that so soon as the flexible bags begin tofill and have a tendency to rise they will draw upon the chaps and closethemV and the more power the bags exert Athe more closely will theapparatus hold tothe chains or ropes to which the forceps are applied.And it will only be desirable in respect to this part of my inventionfurther to remark that in order to use the same the ship or vessel belowthe surface of the water 1s to be swept for as is well understood inorder to get one 0r more cables around her and from these any number ofchains or cables may be used and aiiixed for receiving air bags andthesame be made fast by the apparatus above described. v

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letter Patent, is

l. The forming and applying an envelop to be employed in inflating thebags, constituting an improved packmg for the purposes herein fullyshown. y

3. I claim the apparatus consisting of the forceps, and its appendages,as described for lowering down flexible air tight ba s or vessels, whichapparatus' is so arrange that the forceps may be made to take hold ofany part of a cable, and be raised and lowered at pleasure from aboveand I Wish it to be explicity understood that the precedingspecification must be taken in all things subjectV to this explanation.

Witness my hand `at Liverpool in the count of Lancaster and Kingdom ofGreat Britaln the thirtieth day of January in the year of our Lord onethousand eight hundred and thirty eight.

SAML. CARSON.

Witnesses THo. P, COLLIER, WM. UNDERWooD.

